All season, Tom Renney’s club has been mystifying. At times, this Ranger team which added Chris Drury and Scott Gomez has been offensive to the eyeballs. That was the case in a disappointing 3-1 road defeat in Carolina the other night following the All-Star Break.

Maybe that’s why tonight’s 4-0 blanking of the rival Flyers at Wachovia Center was such a pleasant surprise. Considering the Blueshirts’ recent road trouble having entered tonight dropping six straight away from Madison Square Garden, this was a change for the better which hopefully will get this underachieving bunch rolling as they start the final three months by visiting New Jersey tomorrow night.

That Renney opted for backup Stephen Valiquette instead of starter Henrik Lundqvist didn’t inspire much confidence. Maybe the affable coach knew something we didn’t because his team played arguably their best game of the season. It came at a critical time with the Islanders falling at home for the sixth consecutive time 3-1 to Los Angeles- suddenly moving them back ahead of their most hated rival into the eighth and final playoff spot in the ultracompetitive East.

Having been embarrassed in their last meeting by the Flyers at home which saw them permit six unanswered including a Scott Hartnell hat trick, it was the Rangers who turned the tables to improve to 3-1-0 over the first place team in a topsy turvy Atlantic.

Despite an early 5-1 edge in shots for Philly, Valiquette was sharp allowing his teammates to steady themselves. They would dominate the rest of the match-up from that point outscoring the Flyers 4-0 and outshooting them 26-15.

Solid in all three zones, the Rangers for once played the way Renney wanted paying close attention to detail and capitalizing on Flyer turnovers by actually driving hard to the net and finishing. Such was the case on the first tally by improving rookie Nigel Dawes. Drury forced a turnover in the neutral zone and then fed a streaking Dawes, who patiently outwaited Antero Niittymaki before putting home his seventh into an open left side.

Another smart defensive play led to the team’s second goal of the opening stanza. Off another Flyer miscue forced by defenseman Dan Girardi which setup an odd-man rush, a hustling Petr Prucha got to a loose rebound off a soft Girardi shot for his seventh at 17:56.

Even the Ranger power play made an appearance. After not getting much accomplished during a late Flyer penalty, they came out and got one thanks to another simple play by Drury, who maybe played his best game as a Blueshirt. Taking a nice pass from Gomez at the left point, the former Little League World Series Trumbull Connecticut star skated to the side and took a wrist shot which sailed thru traffic past a screened Niittymaki for his 13th of the season only 23 seconds into the second.

In command up three, the relentless Blueshirts didn’t stop there. Instead, they cashed in on an overly aggressive Flyer team who was trying to do anything to change the tempo. When Girardi forced another turnover, rookie pivot Brandon Dubinsky won a battle along the wall and sprung Sean Avery and Brendan Shanahan on a two-on-one. The speedy Avery threaded the needle to Shanny who wired it into an open net for his team-leading 17th just 1:18 after Drury’s power play tally. It was the recently turned 39 year-old veteran’s second game in a row with a goal after going without even a point in eight previous games before the AS Break. Just maybe the time off helped him recover from a knee injury which clearly was hampering his effectiveness.

The Rangers are going to need a healthier Shanahan down the stretch to finish like he did tonight.

All that was left in the third was whether Valiquette would notch his first career NHL shutout. To the Flyers’ credit, they came hard playing to the final buzzer. However, a late flurry of shots didn’t seem to faze the Ranger backup who was playing with a heavy heart due to the loss of his uncle. His best stop came on Simon Gagne in the final two minutes where he got across to stack the pads on a laser of a shot from 20 feet targeted for the top part of the net.

It’s obvious that without a win, we’re really in trouble,” Valiquette told the Associated Press after a relatively easy 20 save night allowing his team to avoid matching their longest road losing streak in six years.

“As long as we carry it over tomorrow in New Jersey and Sunday in Montreal, then we’re back in the playoff picture and nobody can count us out anymore,” Valiquette was quick to point out.

He got it right. This team has been an enigma all season. Now we’ll see if they can carry the momentum forward against two more quality opponents this weekend.

For now, it’s a step in the right direction.

Notes: It was the first time the Flyers lost to another opponent in regulation other than the Devils since a 3-2 loss at Buffalo last Dec.21. … Ranger defenseman Fedor Tyutin picked up two seconday assists, earning the game’s Third Star. It was his second game of two helpers-or-more in the last four contests. He tallied a career best three in a 4-0 shutout of Atlanta on Jan.24. 

Dubi Dubi Doo: With an assist, Dubinsky has points in four of his last five games. Since Jan.12, the 21 year-old from Anchorage is 3-4-7 with a plus-seven rating in the past nine games. He was selected as the All-Star MVP in the Young Stars Game. … Rangers (25-22-6, 56 pts) look to make it five for five and clinch the season series from the Devils (28-19-3, 59 pts) in Newark. The Devs have dropped their last two.